Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about some very good regional development programs brewing on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales as a consequence of a funding structure that has now been developed over a period of time involving the coming together of both the state government and federal government regional development arms through the Regional Development Australia initiative. On the Mid-North Coast a strategic plan has been put together, and we have just received a range of submissions from various community groups. Really good examples of local empowerment and localism in action include the three communities of Johns River, Moorland and Kew, which are all Pacific Highway bypass towns nervous about their futures. They have received funding from the New South Wales RDA to put together village plans but, in a quirk of funding arrangements, there is no funding for the implementation of those plans. The three communities have taken the next step and put together a very sensible funding application through the RDA structure to actually implement those Pacific Highway bypass village plans.

An example of some of the work already underway in those village plans is that two weekends ago the very progressive Johns River Progress Association managed to get a small amount of federal government funding to construct a walkway through a reserve leading to the community hall. It probably does not sound like much in this place but at a community level, where all the various volunteers were working in concert over a period of time, seeing that walkway finished and opened at a very good community event is a compliment to the strength of the local community of Johns River and an example of what we are trying to do through the RDA structure and the idea of localism and local empowerment. Johns River is a model community in regard to the bottom-up approach to policy, sorting out a strategic plan on the ground, smoothing out any issues that may exist within the community and then making it very easy for the various levels of government to support the community in implementing the various strategies.

I would hope through the RDA funding round that is currently being considered that the three communities at Kew, Johns River and Moorland are considered well and that these village plans that have been made over the past couple of years are given support from the federal government so that the communities continue to be empowered and to implement those strategic plans. (Time expired)

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